John 2:1–4:1

¹And the third day a marriage happened in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there, ²and also Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage; ³and wine having failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, ‘Wine they have not;’ ⁴Jesus saith to her, ‘What—to me and to thee, woman? not yet is mine hour come.’ ⁵His mother saith to the ministrants, ‘Whatever he may say to you—do.’ ⁶And there were there six water-jugs of stone, placed according to the purifying of the Jews, holding each two or three measures. ⁷Jesus saith to them, ‘Fill the water-jugs with water;’ and they filled them—unto the brim; ⁸and he saith to them, ‘Draw out, now, and bear to the director of the apartment;’ and they bare. ⁹And as the director of the apartment tasted the water become wine, and knew not whence it is, (but the ministrants knew, who have drawn the water,) the director of the feast doth call the bridegroom, ¹⁰and saith to him, ‘Every man, at first, the good wine doth set forth; and when they may have drunk freely, then the inferior; thou didst keep the good wine till now.’ ¹¹This beginning of the signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

¹²After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples; and there they remained not many days. ¹³And the passover of the Jews was nigh, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, ¹⁴and he found in the temple those selling oxen, and sheep, and doves, and the money-changers sitting, ¹⁵and having made a whip of small cords, he put all forth out of the temple, also the sheep, and the oxen; and of the money-changers he poured out the coins, and the tables he overthrew, ¹⁶and to those selling the doves he said, ‘Take these things hence; make not the house of my Father a house of merchandise.’ ¹⁷And his disciples remembered that it is written, ‘The zeal of Thy house did eat me up;’ ¹⁸the Jews then answered and said to him, ‘What sign dost thou shew to us—that thou dost these things?’ ¹⁹Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up.’ ²⁰The Jews, therefore, said, ‘Forty and six years was this sanctuary building, and wilt thou in three days raise it up?’ ²¹but he spake concerning the sanctuary of his body; ²²when, then, he was raised out of the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this to them, and they believed the Writing, and the word that Jesus said.

²³And as he was in Jerusalem, in the passover, in the feast, many believed in his name, beholding his signs that he was doing; ²⁴and Jesus himself was not trusting himself to them, because of his knowing all men, ²⁵and because he had no need that any should testify concerning man, for he himself was knowing what was in man.

Chapter 3

¹And there was a man of the Pharisees, Nicodemus his name, a ruler of the Jews, ²this one came unto him by night, and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we have known that from God thou hast come—a teacher, for no one these signs is able to do that thou dost, if God may not be with him.’ ³Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Verily, verily, I say to thee, If any one may not be born from above, he is not able to see the reign of God;’ ⁴Nicodemus saith unto him, ‘How is a man able to be born, being old? is he able into the womb of his mother a second time to enter, and to be born?’ ⁵Jesus answered, ‘Verily, verily, I say to thee, If any one may not be born of water, and the Spirit, he is not able to enter into the reign of God; ⁶that which hath been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which hath been born of the Spirit is spirit.

⁷‘Thou mayest not wonder that I said to thee, It behoveth you to be born from above; ⁸the Spirit where he willeth doth blow, and his voice thou dost hear, but thou hast not known whence he cometh, and whither he goeth; thus is every one who hath been born of the Spirit.’ ⁹Nicodemus answered and said to him, ‘How are these things able to happen?’ ¹⁰Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Thou art the teacher of Israel—and these things thou dost not know!

¹¹‘Verily, verily, I say to thee—What we have known we speak, and what we have seen we testify, and our testimony ye do not receive; ¹²if the earthly things I said to you, and ye do not believe, how, if I shall say to you the heavenly things, will ye believe? ¹³and no one hath gone up to the heaven, except he who out of the heaven came down—the Son of Man who is in the heaven.

¹⁴‘And as Moses did lift up the serpent in the wilderness, so it behoveth the Son of Man to be lifted up, ¹⁵that every one who is believing in him may not perish, but may have life age-during, ¹⁶for God did so love the world, that His Son—the only begotten—He gave, that every one who is believing in him may not perish, but may have life age-during. ¹⁷For God did not send His Son to the world that he may judge the world, but that the world may be saved through him; ¹⁸he who is believing in him is not judged, but he who is not believing hath been judged already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

¹⁹‘And this is the judgment, that the light hath come to the world, and men did love the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil; ²⁰for every one who is doing wicked things hateth the light, and doth not come unto the light, that his works may not be detected; ²¹but he who is doing the truth doth come to the light, that his works may be manifested, that in God they are having been wrought.’

²²After these things came Jesus and his disciples to the land of Judea, and there he did tarry with them, and was baptizing; ²³and John was also baptizing in Aenon, nigh to Salem, because there were many waters there, and they were coming and were being baptized— ²⁴for John was not yet cast into the prison— ²⁵there arose then a question from the disciples of John with some Jews about purifying, ²⁶and they came unto John, and said to him, ‘Rabbi, he who was with thee beyond the Jordan, to whom thou didst testify, lo, this one is baptizing, and all are coming unto him.’ ²⁷John answered and said, ‘A man is not able to receive anything, if it may not have been given him from the heaven; ²⁸ye yourselves do testify to me that I said, I am not the Christ, but, that I am having been sent before him; ²⁹he who is having the bride is bridegroom, and the friend of the bridegroom, who is standing and hearing him, with joy doth rejoice because of the voice of the bridegroom; this, then, my joy hath been fulfilled.

³⁰‘Him it behoveth to increase, and me to become less; ³¹he who from above is coming is above all; he who is from the earth, from the earth he is, and from the earth he speaketh; he who from the heaven is coming is above all.

³²‘And what he hath seen and heard this he doth testify, and his testimony none receiveth; ³³he who is receiving his testimony did seal that God is true; ³⁴for he whom God sent, the sayings of God he speaketh; for not by measure doth God give the Spirit; ³⁵the Father doth love the Son, and all things hath given into his hand; ³⁶he who is believing in the Son, hath life age-during; and he who is not believing the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God doth remain upon him.’

Chapter 4

¹When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees heard that Jesus more disciples doth make and baptize than John,